The present invention relates to the use of a conventional jewelry card on which an ornamental article is mounted, the jewelry card being employed in combination with a cover member that provides for the protection of the ornamental article as mounted on said card member during the shipment and/or display thereof.
It is conventional in the display of ornamental articles such as jewelry items, including earrings, pins and the like to mount the article on a card that is provided with a hook-like portion located on the upper end of the rear surface of the card. The hook-like portion enables the card to be received on a horizontal rod that forms a part of a display rack, the cards with the jewelry articles mounted thereon thereby being readily viewable by a customer for visual inspection of the ornamental article.
When a fragile article is utilized as part of the jewelry article and is mounted on the jewelry card, problems have been experienced, particularly in the shipment of the carded jewelry from the manufacturer of the jewelry to the customer. Usually carded jewelry articles are indiscriminately placed in cartons and are shipped to the customer in bulk form, primarily because of the labor costs that are involved in packing the jewelry articles in boxes in a more secure manner. In many instances jewelry articles are not subject to bending, chipping or breaking in shipment, but oftentimes jewelry articles such as those made of fragile materials such as porcelain can be damaged in shipment when packaged in bulk form and as a result these kinds of articles as mounted on cards must be packaged separately for protection against chipping, cracking and general breakage. Prior to the instant invention, generally there have not been any unusual precautions taken for separately packaging such fragile jewelry articles when they are shipped in the usual fashion, that is, in boxes that contain a number of the articles that are indiscriminately placed within the package. Although some efforts have been made heretofore to specifically protect the more fragile articles, it is understood that providing for separate wrapping in the cartons in which the fragile carded jewelry articles are packaged, does materially increase the cost of the articles.
As will be described hereinafter, the present invention provides a simple yet effective protector for fragile ornamental articles, wherein the jewelry and card on which it is mounted is packaged in the usual manner in bulk form within a carton without materially increasing the cost of the ornamental article yet providing for complete protection therefor against breaking and chipping.